Example research essay topic: Robert Burns West Indies - 1,591 words

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Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, January 25, 1759. He was the eldest of seven children born to William Burness, a struggling tenant farmer, and his wife, Agnes Broun. (Encarta) Although poverty limited his education, His skill as a wordsmith is second only to that of Shakespeare. He is the consummate poet. He was raised amidst the folk culture of the Lowland countryside. The songs and stories he heard were spoken in Scottish a language closer to Old-English than to modern English and which by the eighteenth century had become only the language of the poor Lowland Scots. Burns would take the language and beliefs of this peasant society and use it, along with English, to create one of the greatest flowerings of poetic expression in any language. (Fischer) One mark of the mans greatness is the number of phrases of his creation that have passed into common usage.

So simply, and eloquently, did Burns express his feelings that they have become part of our everyday speech. Without thinking, we often use his words to express our thoughts. Among them: A mans a man for a that; Mans inhumanity to man; To see ourselves as others see us; The best-laid schemes o mice and men; The awkward squad; Oh, whistle and Ill come to you; Freedom and whisky gang thither! ; To do or die. There are many, many more. Burns was well versed in English literature and the Bible and learned to read French.

He was encouraged in his self-education by his father, and his mother acquainted him with Scottish folk songs, legends, and proverbs. Arduous farm work and undernourishment in his youth, kept Burns health permanently on the decline, leading to the rheumatic heart disease from which he eventually died. (Encarta) He spent his childhood years working on his fathers farm, but in spite of his poverty he was extremely well read at the insistence of his father, who employed a tutor for Robert and his younger brother, Gilbert. Little did tutor John Murdoch know that the young pupil who made rapid progress in reading and was just tolerable at writing (The Complete) would grow up to become Scotland's national Bard. By the age of fifteen, Burns was the principal worker on the farm and this prompted him to start writing in an attempt to find some kind of counterpoise for his circumstances. (The Complete) It was at this tender age that Burns penned his first verse, My Handsome Nell, which was an ode to the other subjects that dominated his life, namely scotch and women. Young Nellie Kirkpatrick, the Blacksmiths daughter, inspired Burns first song.

Fifteen rear old Robert was smitten with her while they were helping with the harvest on his fathers farm. In an effort to win Nell's affections from a rival, Burns memorized her favorite tune and wrote lyrics to it. (The Complete) Women were always an inspiration to Burns. A friend, and member of Burns youthful Tarbolton Bachelors Club (a friendly club formed by Robert, and Gilbert, when Burns was 21, recalled: we often took a walk in the fields; in these walks I have frequently been struck by his facility in addressing the fair sex, and it was generally a death-blow to our conversation, however agreeable, to meet a female acquaintance. Some book he always carried and read when not otherwise employed. It was likewise his custom to read at table. (Fischer) William and Agnes Burns toiled hard to raise and educate their boys, Robert and Gilbert. William took a position as the overseer and daily gardener at a nearby estate, while the young Burns boys added hours of study, in John Murdoch's school, to their hours of toil in the fields.

Robert worked on the family farm alongside his mother. As Agnes worked in the fields or in the cottage, she told Robert old stories and sang him old songs. A friend of his mother, Betty Davidson, was also an important influence. He would later claim that his latent seeds of Poesy were cultivated by Davidson's large collection of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkiest, kelpie's, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantrip, giants, enchanted towers, dragons and other trumpery.

His education from these two women his mother and Betty Davidson taught him to appreciate the traditions of the Scottish countryside. (Fischer) The poets father died in 1784, leaving him as head of the family. (Encarta) In 1784 Burns read the works of the Edinburgh poet Robert Fergusson. During the next two years he produced most of his best-known poems, including The Cotters Saturday Night, Halloween, To a Daisy, and To a Mouse. In addition, he wrote The Jolly Beggars, which is considered one of his masterpieces. Several of his early poems, notably Holy Willies Prayer, satirized local church disputes, bringing him into conflict with the church. (Encarta) Burns further angered church authorities by having several indiscreet love affairs. In 1785 he fell in love with Jean Armour, the daughter of a building contractor. Jean soon became pregnant, and although Burns offered to make her his wife, her father forbade their marriage.

Thereupon (1786) he prepared to immigrate to the West Indies. Before departing he arranged to issue by subscription a collection of his poetry. Published on July 31 in Kilmarnock in an edition of 600 copies, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was an immediate success. In September Burns abandoned the West Indies plan due perhaps to the fact that Jean Armour became the mother of twins. (Encarta) In the fall of 1786, he moved to Edinburgh. The scholars there mistakenly believed him to be an untutored bard, a Heavens-taught Plowman. (Encarta) He resented their condescension, and his blunt manner of speech, and occasional social awkwardness turned admirers against him. (Encarta) While Burns was in Edinburgh, he successfully published a second, 3000 -copy edition of Poems (1787), which earned him a considerable sum. From the proceeds he was able to tour (1787) the English border region and the Highlands and finance another winter in Edinburgh.

The next spring, Jean Armour bore him another set of twins, both of whom died, and in April Burns and Armour were married. In June 1788, Burns leased a poorly equipped farm in Ellisland, but the land proved unproductive. Within a year he was appointed to a position in the Excise Service, and in November 1791 he relinquished the farm. (Encarta) In 1790 (age 31), Burns won an appointment to a government post in the Excise through the influence of a politically connected patron: He left Ellisland to become of all things a tax collector. He longed to leave the dull, physical labor of the farm behind, to have more time for his poetry and song, but it seems that Burns just traded one headache for another. He did have more time for his art, but the loss of his inspirational, rural setting seems to have affected him spiritually as well as physically. Burns, according to Bennett Fischer, was always susceptible to the infirmities of 18 th century life and was often ill with violent colds and fevers during his final years. (Fischer) Who knows how much this may have contributed to his eventual demise from rheumatic fever, at the age of 37?

Some biographers speak of the last period of Burns life as one of tarnished and faded celebrity, Burns settled into a much more mundane existence than that of his glory days as the precious bard of Edinburgh society, but his life went on. There were more love affairs, his marriage to Jean Armour, more affairs, and more children, both in and out of wedlock. His poetry output slowed, but still included some of his greatest works, including his masterpiece, Tam o Shatter. And there were the songs always the songs, some 370 of them. (Fischer) His death occurred on the same day as his wife Jean gave birth to his last son, Maxwell. On the day of his burial more than 10, 000 people came to watch and pay their respects. However, his popularity then was nothing compared to the heights it has reached since.

Each year, on the anniversary of his birth, Scots both at home and abroad celebrate Robert Burns with a supper, where they address the haggis, the ladies, and whisky. A celebration which would undoubtedly make him proud. (The Complete) Haggis is made of a sheep s or calf s liver, heart, and lungs, chopped with onions, seasonings, suet, and oatmeal, and boiled in a bag made from the stomach of a sheep or calf... It is traditionally served on St. Andrews Day, November 30 th to commemorate St. Andrew, the brother of St.

Peter, and one of the twelve disciples, the patron Saint of Scotland. Scots like to describe the haggis as a plump ungainly creature of the hills, and, as Bruce Mclaughlin of The Detroit News put it: easily caught, a bit tougher to digest. Whatever its origins, the humble haggis was merely a staple part of a Scotsman's diet until Robert Burns celebrated it in mock heroic verse. Now, of course, Burns fans the world over commemorate the Bards birthday with their own dinners.

And one thing that has stood the test of time and still plays its central part is the haggis. Burns Suppers have been part of Scottish culture for about 200 years as a means of commemorating Scotland s beloved bard. And when Burns immortalized haggis in verse he created a central link that is maintained to this day.

Research essay sample on Robert Burns West Indies